The present invention relates in general to an up-dating source database, accessible by a uniquely identified target entity, to only a portion of the total data contained in the source database where that portion comprising the data to which the target database is entitled is predetermined in conjunction with the source database.
There are numerous situations where it may be desirable for a first company, or other entity, to provide product related data to one or more second entities that may wish to use the data to build products that support or interact with products produced by the first company. For the purposes of this invention, the term xe2x80x9centityxe2x80x9d may be applied to a person, group of persons, a company or portion of that company (e.g., a department or division), as well as a group of companies and the like, including one or more devices or nodes used by such persons, groups, companies or portions of them. Some of the data related to a product may be considered proprietary by the first company and thus it may be that the first company would not want it released to the public in general. This is especially true when the product is still in the design or testing stages and may still be subject to changes before being finalized. When such data is released to other companies or individuals, the entity receiving such information is generally required to sign a non-disclosure agreement with certain penalties for failing to abide by the agreement. Since different entities receiving the data typically have different products, their data requirements differ. In other words, one company receiving data related to the first company""s product may have a need for only a small portion of the total database maintained by the first company, while another company may need a significant portion of the data maintained by the first company. In such instances, the scope of the non-disclosure agreements and the penalties involved may vary significantly between receiving entities.
As an example of the above, a first company xe2x80x9cIxe2x80x9d that produces computer chips might need significant portions of a given software product database from a second company xe2x80x9cMxe2x80x9d that provides computer operating systems to properly design and test computer chips designed to run on future company xe2x80x9cMxe2x80x9d software. A small game software company may, however, only need data related to one aspect of that same software product. It may also be noted here that company xe2x80x9cMxe2x80x9d may need to receive certain parts of any computer chip database maintained by company xe2x80x9cIxe2x80x9d to properly complete the design and testing of the given software product. In other words, two different entities may each require certain portions of each other""s databases. However, each of the source data entities may well want to restrict access of the total database to only entities within the company, while allowing only specifically designated portions of the total source database to entities outside the company. Even within a company, it may be desirable to restrict access interdepartmentally or between divisions on a need-to-know basis.
Another consideration to be taken into account, before distributing data, is that the total source database may be very extensive and, likewise, the portion of that database that a given receiving entity may be entitled to access may be very voluminous. In such a case, if all the data were supplied at one time, the receiving entity might be overwhelmed. On the other hand, numerous requests, by the receiving entity, for small amounts of information would be burdensome to the source entity.
As will be realized, the source database, in the situation involving a product which is being designed, tested and redesigned to fix problems detected during testing, is continually changing recorded values and parameters and typically growing in size as more data is established and/or recorded. Thus, any party that is working on a related product needs the latest data available to make appropriate design decisions. All known prior art attempts to rely on the source of data to timely provide appropriate portions of a source database available to an entitled receiving party have failed to satisfy the receiving party.
It would thus be desirable to establish a method and service wherein an entity could provide for the distribution of any portion of data from a total source database to a plurality of requesting entities where each of the requesting entities may be restricted to different portions of the total database and the requesting entities may be physically located remotely from the source database. It would further be desirable that the portion restrictions for a given receiving entity be dynamically alterable under appropriate authority conditions from locations remote from the source database.
The present invention involves using a communication network interconnecting a source computer or other control entity associated with a source database and one or more uniquely identifiable target computers or control entities to allow each of the target entities to obtain a listing of data which they are allowed or entitled to receive and then supplying to the target entities the data selected by the target entity from the list.